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Elizabeth Stoddard
Elizabeth Drew Stoddard (May 6, 1823 - August 1, 1902), was an American poet and novelist. Life She was born Elizabeth Drew Barstow in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, on 6 May 1823. She studied at Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Massachusetts.Britannica 1911, 25, 939. She married Richard Henry Stoddard in 1852. The couple settled permanently in New York City, where they belonged to New York's vibrant, close-knit literary and artistic circles. She assisted her husband in his literary work, and contributed stories, poems and essays to the periodicals. She wrote 3 novels — The Morgesons (1862), Two Men (1865) and Temple House (1867), and a volume of poems (1895). Many of her own works were originally published between 1859 and 1890 in such magazines as Harper's Monthly, Harper's Bazaar, and The Atlantic Monthly. The couple had 3 children, 2 of whom died as infants.Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard 1823-1902, Poetry Foundation. Web, Nov. 30, 2014. The 3rd child, Edwin Lorimer "Lorry" Stoddard (1863-1901),Edwin Lorimer "Lorry" Stoddard, Geni.com. Web, Nov. 30, 2014. also wrote poetry. After Lorry died aged 37, Elizabeth Stoddard collected his poems, which she published privately in 1902.A Few Verses (New York: privately published, 1902). Internet Archive, Web, Nov. 30, 2014. A new edition of her novels was issued in 1901. She died in New York on 1 August 1902. She is buried at Oakland Cemetery in Sag Harbor, New York.Elizabeth Drew Stoddard, Geni.com. Web, Nov. 30, 2014. Writing Stoddard is most widely known today as the author of The Morgesons (1862). Her other 2 novels are Two Men (1865) and Temple House (1867). Stoddard was also a prolific writer of short stories, children's tales, poems, essays, travel writing, and journalism pieces. Her work combines the narrative style of the popular 19th-century male-centered bildungsroman with the conventions of women's romantic fiction in this revolutionary exploration of the conflict between a woman's instinct, passion, and will, and the social taboos, family allegiances, and traditional New England restraint that inhibit her. Her most studied work, The Morgesons is set in a small seaport town, and is the dramatic story of Cassandra Morgeson's fight against social and religious norms in a quest for sexual, spiritual, and economic autonomy. An indomitable heroine, Cassandra not only achieves an equal and complete love with her husband and ownership of her family's property, but also masters the skills and accomplishments expected of women. Counterpointed with the stultified lives of her aunt, mother, and sister, Cassandra's success is a striking and radical affirmation of women's power to shape their own destinies. Embodying the convergence of the melodrama and sexual undercurrents of gothic romance and Victorian social realism, The Morgesons marks an important transition in the development of the novel and evoked comparisons during Stoddard's lifetime with such masters as Honoré de Balzac, Leo Tolstoy, George Eliot, the Brontë sisters, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.Alfred Habegger,[http://books.google.com/books?id=LY9cs1NGugoC&pg=PA95 Henry James and the "Woman Business"]. Cambridge University Press, 1989, 95. Print. A major reason for Stoddard's importance to American literature is the historical context of her work: the manner in which her writing embodied and subverted the tension of her present-day culture with the archetypal or received values of the American past. A pioneering precursor of regionalist authors Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Kate Chopin, as well as of American modernism, Stoddard is noteworthy for her writing's almost total lack of sentimentality and for its pervasive use of irony, psychological depth of richly drawn characters, intense atmospheric descriptions of New England, concise language, and innovative use of narrative voice and structure. Her investigation of relations between the sexes, a dominant focus of her fiction, analyzes emotions ranging from love and desire to disdain, aggression, and depression. Publications Poetry * Poems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin / Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1895. Novels * The Morgesons: A novel New York: Carleton, 1862. ** (edited by Lawrence Buell & Sandra A. Zagarell). New York: Penguin Books, 1997. * Two Men: A novel. New York: Bunce & Huntington, 1865. [http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/Supplements/Excerpts/Spring%2008/9780803293472_excerpt.pdf excerpt] **(edited by Jennifer Putzi). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press , 2008. * Temple House: A novel. New York: G.W. Carleton, 1867 **revised edition, New York: Cassell, 1888. Short fiction *"Lemorne versus Huell". Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 26 (1863); Champaign, IL: Project Gutenberg, 199-?."Lemorne versus Huell".Project Gutenberg. Web, Nov. 24, 2013. *''Stories'' (edited by Susanne Opfermann & Yvonne Roth). Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003. Juvenile *''Lolly Dinks's Doings'' (by "His mother, old Mrs. Dinks"). Boston: William F. Gill, 1874. Edited *''Readings and Recitations from Modern Authors: Being pearls gathered from the fields of poetry and romance'' (edited with Richard Henry Stoddard). Chicago & New York: Belford, Clarke, 1884. *Lorimer Stoddard, A Few Verses. New York: privately published, 1902. Collected editions *''The Morgesons, and other writings, published and unpublished'' (edited by Lawrence Buell & Sandra A. Zagarell). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996. *''An anthology in memoriam (1823-1902)'' (edited by M. Myers). Bristol, IN: Bristol Banner Books, 1998. Letters *''Selected Letters'' (edited by Jennifer Putzi & Elizabeth Stockton). Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2012. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Elizabeth Stoddard, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 23, 2013. See also *List of U.S. poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 6, 2018. *Putzi, Jennifer "'Tattooed still': The inscription of female agency in Elizabeth Stoddard's 'The Morgesons" Legacy' - Volume 17:3, 2000, 165–173 University of Nebraska Press * http://www.lsu.edu/lsupress/Books/Lightning%20Source/Moss_Domestic.htm *Smith, Robert McClure and Ellen Weinauer, eds. American Culture, Canons, and the Case of Elizabeth Stoddard. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama Press, 2003. *Stockton, Elizabeth. “ ‘A Crusade against Duty’: Property, Self-Possession, and the Law in the Novels of Elizabeth Stoddard.” New England Quarterly 79.3 (2006): 413-438. Notes External links ;Poems * Stpddard, Elizabeth (1823-1902) ("Nameless Pain") at Representative Poetry Online *2 poems by Stoddard: "A Summer Night," "November" *Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard at the Poetry Foundation *Elizabeth Stoddard in An American Anthology 1787-1900: "The Poet's Secret," "November," "Unreturning," "In the Still, Star-Lit Night," "Mercedes," "On the Campagna," " A Summer Night," "Last Days" ;Books * *Elizabeth Stoddard at the Online Books Page *Books and articles by and about Stoddard at Questia *Elizabeth Drew Stoddard at Amazon.com ;About *Elizabeth Stoddard (1823-1902) at PAL: Perspectives in American Literature Category:1823 births Category:1902 deaths Category:People from Plymouth County, Massachusetts Category:American novelists Category:19th-century poets Category:American poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:19th-century women writers Category:American women writers Category:Women poets